Last night: SF 5 CHC 4 (13)
Today: CHC 4 SF 1
The Giants pulled off another amazing, dramatic win on Tuesday. Madison Bumgarner gave them seven strong innings but the bullpen could not hold the lead and it went to extras. Pablo Sandoval finally ended it with a homer in the 13th.
This afternoon the Cubs beat up on Tyler Beede, getting ten hits, three of them homers. The youngster did strike out seven in his 5-2/3, and only walked one, otherwise the damage would have been worse. Javier Baez brought the big stick for Chicago and their bullpen gave them five scoreless after starter Tyler Chatwood left after four.
Taking two of three from the Cubs after three of four from the Mets means a 5-2 homestand. I have to think that's pretty damn good. Four of the Giants five wins were walk-offs. They played fifteen extra innings! But with the off-day tomorrow the team should be well-rested before their nine-game road trip. They go to San Diego for three, then have a travel day before three in Philadelphia, then it's three in Colorado. It's been a magical month (16-4, .800) so far, let's hope they can keep the fire going.
Jeff Samardzija Friday night (7:10), Shaun Anderson Saturday (5:40), and MadBum Sunday afternoon (1:05).
GO GIANTS!
--M.C.
7 comments:
Of course winning two out of three is not bad, that is unless you won the first two. Then it is bad for game 3. Plus the giants with two outs in the ninth came alive. Although everyone seemed to hit the ball okay in the 9th. The first out of the game was a called strike 3 on Belt which was a much worse call than the one which caused Rizzo to argue and get kicked out of the game. Belt hit a hard long line drive but it was quite catchable. Either about 10-15 feet longer, or a bit more in the gap, and the place would have gone wild again. The Cubs first home run, came on a high inside fastball. Was a good piece of bad ball hitting. The hitters continue to be mostly the same guys, in Vogt, Solano, and Dickerson. Too bad Dickerson's back and obliques are acting up, we seem to be a much better line-up with him in it. Kind of supporting what I and some others said at the beginning of the season. The giants needed to obtain one guy for the middle of the line-up who could hit both for power and for average. One guy like that makes the entire team of complimentary players so much better.
If they can face a quality club ahead of them in the standings and have a real chance to take the series then I'm happy. I don't expect the Giants to play .800 ball much longer, but I'd like to think they can sustain their winning ways. FanGraphs projects them to go 28-31 and says they'll finish 80-82. That's better than anyone expected of the team this spring. I think the projection is a just that, a projection, and I would like to see the Giants flip those numbers over and win more games than they lose the rest of the way.
Projections in baseball are kind of like astrology, with a drop of science mixed in to give them some degree of value, and perhaps allowing the projection systems to make money on their projections, either directly, or indirectly via advertisements. Did any of the projection systems say that Dickerson would become a giant, and start off with the giants the way that McCovery, Dan Gladden, Randy Winn, Marco Scutaro and Melky Cabrera did? How many projection systems even after the trades were made had Marco Scutaro, or Randy Winn coming to the giants and hitting like hall of famers? I am more than enjoying the giants recent success, and I hope they continue to play above 500. I am expecting the team to finish the season above 500 at home. I hope they can continue to play well on the road. One or two more weeks of winning and they will start selling out again.
Yesterday in the ninth inning I thought there was a chance we could win. That is so different from the first half of the season where I would have known we would lose. For me baseball is all about emotion and not about statistics (except to the extent the numbers support my feelings.. lol).
It is pretty clear that FZ has upgraded the team in many spots. It took a lot of roster churning but it is paying off. Let's hope they can keep grinding out series victories. I'm tired of looking up from the cellar. It feels great to be in 2nd place!
He tried one after the other outfielders until one or two actually stuck. Now three of the new outfielders are playing okay. Yaz, Slater, and Dickerson. I am sure that Pillar has saved a lot of runs on defense, and has been okay on offense. I just wish he would learn some plate discipline. He seems to have the raw talent and the bat speed. By swinging at so many bad pitches, he gets less good pitches to hit. In the outfield he has been a highlight reel. Duggar is another weapon we have, and now is back in the minors. I guess when others have played so well he has at least temporarily lost his spot. Yaz has not had a drop off from the minors to the majors. Quite unlike Williamson. I heard Williamson has left the Mariner organization and has gone to Asia to play ball. So much talent, with the inability to put the bat on the ball consistently against major league pitching. Just as an aside, when looking at our minor league talent, it does not look that bad. Perhaps our prospects are a tad under rated.
I think we are seeing those "prospects": Beede, Coonrod, Anderson, Green. That's fun, for me. I like to see the new guys figure out what it takes to stick. I had hoped to see more of Aramis Garcia, but Vogt is playing too well. And I want to see more of Ray Black and Conner Menez.
Mac went to Korea, there was a note about it on MLBTR last week.
Post a Comment